Pirelli taking its soft and medium tyres to Spain

Pirelli is taking its brand new medium tyre to the Valencia for the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend.

The medium tyres are best suited to the unique demands of the street circuit, according to the Italian tyres manufacturer.

The PZero White medium, which was tested during free practice in Canada two weeks ago, is not quite as durable as the hard tyre seen during the first five grands prix of the season, but it is quicker while still representing a significant step in range over the PZero Yellow soft tyre, which is the option tyre in Valencia.

Valencia will be the third street circuit race in succession this year, following Monaco and Canada, where the outcome of the race was only settled in the very final laps.

Paul Hembery, director of motorsport for Pirelli, said: “We’ve seen some fantastic street races so far this season, with the last grand prix in Canada being one of the highlights of the year, so we hope that Valencia will continue this pattern although it’s notoriously difficult to overtake there.

“Tyre wear on this circuit is likely to be quite high because of the track layout, the nature of the surface, and also the weather conditions, which should be very warm. For all these reasons, we’ve selected the medium and soft tyres, which should provide the teams with a good level of resistance, plenty of different opportunities for strategy and about a second per lap difference between the compounds.

“The PZero White tyres have been adjusted slightly from our original specification to make them a bit more durable, along the lines of the tweak we made to the PZero Silver hard tyre in Spain, and this was the compound that the teams tested during Friday’s free practice in Canada, giving us plenty of useful data.”